That’s what I’d do, and was doing for a while (plan to restart very soon). The Drexel study specifically was for anti-aging of the skin, and they used the equivalent of 1mg per 100ml of solution (although they used a cream or ointment, not solution). The concentration of the topical medicine for tuberous sclerosis is much stronger (100 times stronger, from your chart above). I might use 2 or 3 mg per 100mg of cream, but at least we aren’t talking orders of magnitude higher than the anti-aging skin study.
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I don’t believe the Drexel study compared subjects taking rapamycin internally to the ones using it internally.
As I posted before, one of the first things I noticed after starting on rapamycin was a big improvement in my photo-damaged skin. The rapamycin taken internally stopped additional actinic keratoses from taking place and healed almost all of the ones I already had.
I have been treated for actinic keratosis for many decades because of my severe overexposure to the sun when I was young.
Because rapamycin works so well for my skin taken internally, I don’t really believe I am going to gain anything by using it externally. But I will try the 0.001% solution (1mg/100mL) a try.
My theory is that using rapamycin in creams etc, just wastes rapamycin because of the low absorption compared to the Transcutol and water solution. I like Transcutol because rapamycin dissolves in it easily and it penetrates deeply into the skin, but not too deeply.
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The Drexel study compared topical rapa to topical placebo. I don’t know of any studies looking at oral rapa and skin aging/actinic damage/actinic keratoses.
When I made my cream a couple of years ago, i dissolved the rapa into transcutol and then mixed it into CeraVe lotion instead of water, which likely further enhances absorption into the skin.
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Hello Rapa Admin, do you have any suggestions for ordering rapamycin powder besides LC labs? I’ve tried ordering from them without success because I don’t work in a laboratory. However, I am a practicing physician, but so far that hasn’t worked. I would really prefer to source a powder over pills for working with topical formulations if anyone has any suggestions. Thank you.
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Can’t you just call in a prescription (for yourself) for sirolimus capsules to your local compounding pharmacy? if they don’t have a source for rapamycin powder, you might have to settle for ordering it from overseas.
Yes - I’ve also ordered from the company mentioned at the top of the following thread (see link below), no issues. Fine for topical creams and toothpaste concoctions (from my experience): Here: Sirolimus Powder - 3rd party analysis
Soooo… any updates on how your homemade Rapa cream worked on your skin? Any pictures? It is a little intimidating for me to try and make this on my own but I sure have a lot of sun damaged/ precancerous skin from years on a sailboat.
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Where can you buy rapamycin powder?
People have mentioned these two sources: (I wouldn’t trust China suppliers for oral use, but for skin use its probably ok).
Mesochem: See this post: Side Effects of Rapamycin (part 2) - #654 by dan_hayes
and HD Pharm: see this post: Sirolimus Powder - 3rd party analysis
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I recently read a couple of papers where researchers tested topical rapamycin and metformin on mice. They found that the treated mice regrew hair faster than the controls.
Impressed by these rodents, I decided to try myself. So I made up 2 solutions; a solution of 160mM metformin in water and a solution of 100nM rapamycin in ethanol.
I decided to use the metformin on my left forearm/hand and the rapa on my left leg below the knee. Right arm and leg are “pseudo-controls”. 1mL/day.
My skin has lots of sun damage due to a misspent youth on the beach with no sunscreen.
I’ll be shouting from the rooftops if there is any improvement!
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Hi, Saw your post about the powdered Sirolimus from a compounding pharmacy.
Would you please be able to share their information?
Thanks
Cathy
It wasn’t my post. I don’t use or buy powdered rapamycin.
I’m new here, so I’m sorry if this is annoying but I was wondering if there’s any kind of wiki or summary of the methods to make the cream and the pros and cons. This thread is… extensive! Hard to dig through.
Dear experts,
I am planning to make a skin cream based on products I have available.
Would anyone be so kind to comment on my suggestion below?
Should I add or change anything, in particular the dosing?
Suggestion for Skin Cream and Scalp Serum
I am based in Norway, and Propylene Glycol was easiest to get ahold of.
Thanks for any advice on both the skin cream and the scalp serum.
You can copy and paste your spreadsheet list like this, to make it easier for people to see:
| Type of molecule / product (%solution strength) | Purpose | Units / Quantity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rapamune | Active ingredient in skin cream and hair serum | 100 x 1mg |
| 2 | Hyaluronic Acid 99% | 100g | |
| 3 | Biotin Powder | 100g | |
| 4 | Astaxanthin 10% powder | 200g | |
| 5 | Retinol Vitamin A Powder | 100g | |
| 6 | N-Acetyl L-Cysteine 99% NAC Powder | 100g | |
| 7 | L-Methionine | 100g | |
| 8 | Fenugreek | 250g | |
| 9 | Ru58841 PSK3841 Powder | 100g | |
| 10 | Minoxidil (Rozino) Topical solution 5% | 2x30ml | |
| 11 | Minoxidil (Rozino) Topical solution 5% | 2x50g | |
| 12 | Nivea Soft Moisturizing Cream (Face/Body/Hands) | 200g | |
| 13 | Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream | 250g | |
| 14 | Propylene Glycol | 2x500ml | |
| 15 | Fisetin | Senolytics | 100g |
| 16 | Metformin |
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The Astaxanthin powder is probably unworkable… its a very powerful red dye and would stain your skin red. So I’d skip that (while I do think it might be helpful from a biological standpoint).
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not sure how I make such table, is there a formatting option ?
No - you just copy from your spreadsheet and paste into the message an its automatically formatted correctly.
Thanks for the clarification on formatting, @RapAdmin
Below is the table showing my suggsted mix, from the link in post above.
All advice is very welcome!
| For daily application to skin (face, neck etc) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Product | Amount | Comment |
| Moisturizing Cream (Nivea or Cetaphil) | 85g | |
| Propylene Glycol | 5g | Mixed with grinded Rapamune-tablets |
| Rapamycin (Rapamune 1mg tablets) | 10mg | In total, ca. 0,01% concentration in 100g cream |
| Hyaluronic Acid 99% | 5g | |
| Astaxanthin 10% powder | 5g | Astaxanthin 10% powder concentration yields 0,5% Astaxanthin concentration in Cream |
| Biotin | 100mg | 0,1% biotin concentration. Copied from biotin skin cream, see link. |
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According to the NIH: "Conclusion: Although topical minoxidil has a better overall therapeutic effect than 1 mg oral minoxidil, the difference between the two groups was not significant. Therefore, 1 mg oral minoxidil may be as effective and safe as standard topical minoxidil in female and male pattern hair loss.Nov 29, 2023.
My concern with the oral minoxidil/spironolactone is that spironolactone decreases testosterone. Not worth it, IMO, if oral is not significantly better than topical.
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